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10 Ways Climate Experts Are Reducing Their Impact

The coal fuelled Cottam power station generates electricity on November 30, 2009 in Retford, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom. As world leaders prepare to gather for the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December, the resolve of the industrial nations seems to be weakening with President Obama stating that it would be impossible to reach a binding deal at the summit. Climate campaigners are concerned that this disappointing announcement is a backward step ahead of the summit

There's been a lot of chatter about climate change over the past few weeks — and reasonably so.

On May 6, the Obama administration released a report, officially dubbed the Third National Climate Assessment, which elaborately examined just how climate change is altering weather conditions in America.

The consensus? We should be worried. The report, the third of its kind under the president's Climate Action Plan, breaks the states into eight regions and individually highlights each area's concerns.

The northwest area of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, for example, is experiencing changing water streamflows and an increased number of wildfires, according to the report. Alaska has warmed twice as fast as the other regions in the past few years, resulting in rapidly melting glaciers and rising ocean temperatures.

We reached out to a few climate reporters and experts, and asked what they do to lower their climate impact. Some of their advice is obvious — recycle often, take shorter showers, maybe cool it with the over-the-top Christmas light yard shows. Other tips, like one writer's vow to never travel via air again, are a little more on the extreme side.

A lone wind turbine spins as exhaust plumes from cooling towers at the Jaenschwalde lignite coal-fired power station, which is owned by Vatenfall, on November 24, 2009 in Janschwalde, Germany. The CO2 emission will be one top of the agenda and will be discussed at the summit in December in Copenhagen.

Daniel Belknap, a researcher at the School of Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine, has been studying climate and sea level changes for the past 40 years.

While he was working as a geologist in 1982, Belknap started (1) using a wood stove and high-efficiency furnace in his home. "I committed to being as energy efficient as possible, based on what I saw [at work]," he says.

His job requires quite a bit of travel — most of which is off-road, usually while towing another vehicle — but he says he's remained as conservative as possible with his personal yard work.

"All of our lawn and garden equipment is (2) rechargeable and electric to cut back on local petroleum use," he adds. "Global change is real, and we all need to seek more ways to lessen impacts."

Kate Sheppard, an environmental reporter for the Huffington Post, has been writing about climate since 2006.

As a resident of Washington, D.C., one of her main habits is (3) biking as often as possible — not exactly groundbreaking when it comes to being efficient, she admits, but given the growth of bike share programs (more than 500 cities across the world have them), it's at least becoming a much more practical option for most people.

Eric Holthaus — "America's weather-predicting boyfriend," according to The Awl — is a meteorologist and weather writer for Slate.

After the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report in September 2013, which highlighted, among other findings, that carbon emissions from humans were undoubtedly leading to dangerous climate alterations across the planet, Holthaus declared via a blog post that he would (5) never fly on an airplane again.

"It was the first report that really said 'the only way to keep our climate from becoming irreversible is for immediate action,'" he tells Mashable. "It just really hit me. I couldn't, and can't, think of not doing something like this."

It's been tough. Holthaus had been, and still is, working on sustainability projects in eastern Africa, and has needed to work remotely or skip trips altogether because of his new pledge. Another habit he's adjusted since studying climate change is his diet. A few years ago, he (6) became a vegetarian because of the environmental impacts caused by most meat production industries.

"Until the U.S. adopts a carbon tax, like British Columbia, for example, it's up to people to perform voluntary actions like these," he says. "It's hard to believe that humans can create changes on this large of a scale. But it's happening."

Heidi Cullen, chief climatologist at Climate Central, says it all comes down to (7) conversation — being vigilantly vocal about raising awareness.

"Personal actions help, sure, but it takes more — like state, international action — to really make something happen," she says. "I founded Climate Central in 2008 in part because I felt the conversation about climate change had fallen off the map. We, and more people, hopefully, can't let that conversation go away."

Like others, Cullen has adjusted her diet — she's "almost" a full-fledged vegan, as "14% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the meat industry." She also uses (8) plastic sheets on her windows as a cheap form of insulation during the winter, which drastically lowers her energy bills, and (9) shops at thrift shops whenever possible.

Mashable's senior climate reporter, Andrew Freedman, has been reporting on the issue since the late 1990s. As a recent homeowner, he says, he's made an effort to make his house energy efficient. He's also made it a point to (10) not move anywhere that will likely be threatened by sea level rise, one of climate change's "biggest near-term threats."

Personal tics aside, though, he agrees with Cullen that the next step lies in the hands of lawmakers.

"Climate change is a fascinating issue to cover, and it's one of the rare issues that has scientists far more worried than the public and policymakers," he says. "So far, at least."

Now it's your turn. Any habits, small or large, that you've adjusted in your life since learning more about climate change? Share your best tips with us in the comments.

8 Climate Visualization Tools

The United States Geological Survey created a web portal showing future climate projections. The projections were determined by a group of “statistically downscaled” global climate models, which is a technique used to make global climate models more relevant at the local level. The map itself allows a user to explore different climate change scenarios, with days above/below certain temperatures, precipitation amounts, and much more, as well seeing how these changes occur by county, ecoregion and such.

Climate Central, a non-profit, research and journalism organization, developed a mapping tool showing the growing threat of sea level rise and storm surge. The map documents what may happen to coastal communities as the ice caps melt and sea levels rise. Anyone can search by zip code or town name. The tool also includes features like the ability to change how different water levels would inundate different locations.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology collaborated to create a climate time machine. Anyone can pick from four different topics like carbon emissions and sea ice and see how much each has changed throughout the past several decades.

Developed by New Scientist, the map shows temperature change over time. The map uses data from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies GISTEMP dataset. The data is derived from a global analysis of surface temperatures form 1880 to the present. The map includes yellow, orange and red heat points to show how much an area has warmed over time. A user can put in any location or zip code and the tool will show how average temperatures have changed in the past 20 years.

The Climate Change Institute at The University of Maine created The Climate Reanalyzer to “make key climate information readily available to everyone.” The map shows weather forecasts and data, ozone levels, historical weather station data and much more. It is particularly useful for seeing how unusual recent temperatures have been, such as the cold during the "polar vortex" event in January.

The Nature Conservancy, The University of Washington and the University of Southern Mississippi created Climate Wizard to show historic temperature and rainfall maps, as well as future predictions of temperature and rainfall around the world. Any user can look at a state or country and see how climate has changed over time and see what changes may come.

The global wind map uses data from the Global Forecast System and shows current weather patterns worldwide. Created by Cameron Beccarlo, a web developer, a user can use the map to see which way winds are blowing at different levels of the atmosphere. An added feature is that a user can also see current weather events happening around the world. It’s updated every three hours, and more features are being added, including ocean currents.

Cal-Adapt, a project of the California Energy Commission, the California Natural Resources Agency and the Public Interest Energy Research Program (PIER), is technically a web-based climate adaptation tool. The tool uses existing downscaled climate change scenarios to let a user see possible climate change risks in specific areas around the state. For example, a user can look at the degree of temperature change around the state or how different levels of snowpack will threaten California. The map focuses on four features: temperature, snowpack, sea level rise and precipitation.

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